TRACKS
DOCKSUNS BLEW UP A KISS Words: Paul Ray Sunderland’s Docksuns return with a very big, very melodramatic spaghetti western banger, replete with tremolo guitar picking and thick, creamy fuzz bass. Blew Up A Kiss crackles with energy and momentum, all verses pointing to the chorus with the confident inevitability of any well-constructed pop song. Despite their insistence that Docksuns’ music is “unpolished and intense, visceral and real”, this is a pop song wearing hard rock drag – the production is sparklingly clean, the vocals harmonised and anthemic. It’s a lot of fun (the misguided Martin Luther King sample in the middle-eight notwithstanding), and it made me miss gigs even more than I already do, because this song would absolutely rip live. Released: 29.01.21 www.facebook.com/docksuns
KOMPARRISON DANCING WITH DEMONS Words: Kate Murphy The gorgeous misty chords in this track grab your attention straight away, and set it apart from your average indie pop song. The storytelling is engaging, the vocals rich, smoky and jaded, and the context of its ‘dance away your troubles’ message gives it an edge: “Our favourite past-time is corrupting our lungs”, they exclaim, and a year ago a line like this would have been no more than a passing metaphor; it now juts out of the song with increasing poignancy, and the lines before it become deeply moving: “We’re the troubled youth that the adults frown upon / Just misunderstood and trying to have some fun”. The song’s tingly beginning promises a lot, although I found myself clawing for a bigger, angrier chorus. Released: 29.01.21 www.facebook.com/komparrison
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REVIEWS OF SINGLES AND EPS BY NORTH EAST ARTISTS. WANT YOUR MUSIC FEATURED? EMAIL NARCMEDIA@GMAIL.COM (PLEASE TRY TO GET IN TOUCH 8-6 WEEKS AHEAD OF THE MONTH OF RELEASE)
WILD SPELKS DREAMER (CAFÉ IN BERLIN) Words: Kate Murphy Instantly likeable, with its shuffly-shoed, droopy-shouldered, dangly-armed bounce, this is the kind of song that makes you long for Polaroid cameras and college dorm days listening to Smashing Pumpkins. With lyrics like “I know this feeling / I know this song” and “Though I’ve never been / My favourite place is a café in Berlin”, Wild Spelks sing on behalf of a world fantasising about being somewhere else. The song embodies the high-pitched sigh of someone staring out of their window, half-here and half-not, half given-up and half-not. The lovely post-chorus guitar glistens with hope and resolve, providing the perfect soundtrack to anyone who’s currently dreaming of their own Berlin, or, at this point, anyone who’d be happy enough to just make it to a café. Released: 26.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/spelksmusic
PINK POISON SPRUNG FROM HELL Words: Paul Jeffrey Sprung From Hell, the latest release from Geordie garage punks Pink Poison, is a 62 second burst of rough and ready 21st Century DIY blues that slaps you around the face as it is kneeing you in the groin. Harsher than a broken Stihl saw, it snaps and snarls like a rabid dog hopped up on gasoline and raw meat, building up an imposing cacophony of slashed speaker cones, dissonant drums and whiskey-soaked vocals that sets the world on fire, burning wildly out of control before swiftly hitting a wall marked ‘the end’. Sometimes, as demonstrated here, music doesn’t need to be complicated; sometimes, a large blast of raw intensity is all you really need. Released: 05.02.21 www.soundcloud.com/pink-poison-band
